During the assembly of an aircraft in a factory, parts of the aircraft are assembled in an assembly line. Then, one or more external panels are affixed to the aircraft parts with screws or other fasteners in such a way that subparts behind these panels become inaccessible. A panel can, for example, be a flat or curved component, typically rectangular, that forms or is set into the body of the aircraft part. Similarly, one or more floor panels are affixed with screws or other fasteners inside the fuselage and subparts under these floor panels are then inaccessible. The phrase used hereinafter to refer to a panel being affixed to the aircraft with screws or other fasteners is to “close a zone”. A “zone” is the area behind the panel. When all of the work inside a zone is complete and a panel has been affixed to the zone to close it, the quality control closure state of the zone is said to be closed. Otherwise, if the panel is not affixed to the zone, the quality control closure state of the zone is said to be open.
When a zone is being closed, a quality control operator checks that the panel is properly affixed, and then indicates the same by physically placing a stamp on one of the screws used to affix the panel. The quality control operator also reports this closure on a paper sheet of a set of paper sheets. If someone needs to re-open the zone by removing the panel, he needs to remove the screws, which destroys the marking and it becomes visible that the panel has been removed. Additionally, the person has to make sure that the paper sheet is updated properly. Hereinafter, a “quality control operator”, a “user”, or a “worker” may be used interchangeably to mean an entity (human, machine, computer, etc.) assembling an aircraft, operating a user interface, or otherwise performing work described hereinbelow.
When a worker or quality control operator wanted to view the status of the aircraft, i.e. which zones are closed or which zones are open, he or she would have to look at the set of paper sheets on which the quality control operators have reported the markings. The current process of aircraft assembly tracking is very cumbersome and time consuming, adding hours onto the assembly time. Furthermore, this process does not allow quality control operators or other workers in the assembly plant to view a comprehensive assembly progress of the aircraft.